Have you seen those drawings and tattoos of semicolons while browsing one of your social media feeds? If so, you are not alone.
But these tattoos and drawings arent celebrating a punctuation mark; they actually have a deeper symbolism, according to Davey Hoen of IJR.
Just ask Green Bay, Wisconsin resident, Amy Bluel.
According to IJR, in 2013, Bluel tragically lost her father to suicide. She wanted to honor her father as well as raise awareness for mental health issues.
So she founded a non-profit organization named Project Semicolon. The goal of the project is to restore hope and confidence in people who are troubled by addiction, depression, self-harm, and suicide.
The non-profit encourages these people to draw or tattoo a semicolon on their wrist.
The semicolon symbolizes that the difficulties they face are not the end but a new beginning.
#SEMICOLONPROJECT @g_timpany
A photo posted by Haleigh Lueders (@haleighbabyyyy) on
The symbolism of the semicolon is explained on Project Semicolons website,
A semicolon is used when an author couldve chosen to end their sentence, but chose not to. The author is you and the sentence is your life.
By encouraging people to share their marks and stories, Project Semicolon seeks to instill hope and open up a dialogue about mental health.
Awesome post from @olishawyer with his new armart “a semicolon where the author has the choice to end the sentence with a full stop, but decides to continue the story my story isn”t over yet” #semicolonproject #anxiety #depression #suicide #life #onyamate
A photo posted by Mark Pacitti (@dancingwiththeblackdog) on
People suffering from these issues dont have to feel alone because there are thousands of people out there with similar struggles their own semicolons.
Hopefully this campaign of semicolons will shed light on an issue that has been plaguing the country, and save some lives in the process.